I can't remember his exact words, but they went something like, "Excuse me, can I talk to you?"
The person in question, turned out, was an Egyptian expat living in Dubai, having left his country post-Arab spring. He called himself one of the Revolutionaries involved in the events leading up to the ousting of Mubarak, and watching me from afar he said he had been keenly interested in the sight of someone sitting and reading and writing in a country not known for attracting many literaries.
We spoke of politics and books and eduction and the literary greats of times gone by, and I remember he told me of his dream of creating a reading room in his parents' house back in Egypt. He showed me photos of the prospective room--there were bare white walls and a window overlooking a city and a lone rocking chair. No books yet--but soon, he told me.
"The Arab culture is not a reading culture," is something I have heard in various forms from several sources during my time in the Middle East. And while some facts may point in this direction, a recent article from NPR challenges that, in various forms, and also reminds me of my once-upon-a-time randomly encountered Egyptian friend (whose contact details were subsequently lost). It's something as small as a reading room, or, in the case of the article above, an old house-cum-bookstore, and something as big as a love of books, that brings people and cultures together, that encourages dialogue and spreads ideas.